India Completes ADS-B Ground Network Installation

India has completed its ground network for automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) tracking of aircraft, according to supplier Comsoft. The German company announced on June 12 that it has finished installing seven new ADS-B ground stations under a second phase of the deployment, which India has integrated into its ATC system.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which manages the country’s airspace, first commissioned Comsoft in 2012 to install ADS-B ground stations at 14 airport sites nationwide. With the second stage of seven sites installed and integrated, “AAI was able to take all ADS-B equipped sites into operation,” the company said. “Local air traffic controllers will now be experiencing greater enhancements for approach and takeoff procedures, including for international en route traffic.”

In line with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s aviation system block upgrade plan, AAI has said that its ADS-B network will provide redundant, satellite-based surveillance where radar coverage exists, fill gaps in surveillance where radar coverage is not possible due to high terrain or remote airspace and enable it to share ADS-B data with neighboring countries. ATC automation systems process ADS-B signals from aircraft and display the information to controllers either as standalone ADS-B tracks or as “reinforced position symbols” fused with radar tracks. The network covers the Indian subcontinent, plus parts of the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.

Comsoft has supplied its Quadrant ADS-B and multilateration sensor, which provides surveillance from the airport surface out to 250 nm, as the ground radio solution. “India’s vast landscape of more than three million square km, including the high altitudes of the Himalayas, will benefit immensely from the long-range surveillance solution and its ability to provide heightened efficiency and safety in all operational procedures, while providing a supplement to conventional radar coverage,” Comsoft said.